Kristin Pollock

Lesson: Describe a Book or a TV Show - Intermediate level

Lesson: Describe a Book or a TV Show Intermediate level

Description

In this lesson, students will practice expressing preferences, evaluating ideas, and describing a book or TV show. They will first be introduced to two books and two TV shows and asked to predict what they're about. Then they will do a listening activity where these books and TV shows are discussed and will reflect on whether their predictions were correct and whether or not the people from the audio liked these books and TV shows. Then they will share whether or not they have any interest in these books and TV shows and explain why or why not. Next, they will use expressions of preference, evaluation, and description to complete sentences from the audio. Students will then come up with and share their own book or TV show to discuss, focusing on expressing description, evaluation, and preference.

Materials

Main Aims

To give students practice in speaking for fluency in the context of describing, recommending and evaluating films or books.

Subsidiary Aims

To give students practice in listening for gist and detail. To provide review/clarification and practice of functional phrases to describe books/films, and to provide freer practice in lexical phrases for evaluating and recommending.

Procedure (42-52 minutes)

1. Task Listening (14-17 minutes) • To give students practice in listening for gist and detail.

A)
• Put students in groups of 3 or 4. Pass out handouts. Instruct to not unfold.
• Instructions:
o There are 4 images here of books and TV shows.
o Our first question is: what do you think these books and TV shows are about?
o Take 2 minutes to discuss this question with your group.
• Ask one person in each group about an image. (What do we think One Hundred Years of Solitude is about?)
B)
• Instructions:
o Now, we are going to listen to 4 people talk about these books and TV shows.
o First, take a moment to look at the 2 questions in 1b.
o You will answer these questions during the audio.
• Play audio.
• Instructions:
o Take 3 minutes to discuss your answers to 1b with your group.
• Ask each group one question from 1b.

2. Task Listening (3-5 minutes) • To practice expressing preferences.

• Instructions:
o Look at question 2 and discuss it with your group for 3-4 minutes.

3. Task Vocabulary (15-18 minutes) • To provide review/clarification and practice of functional phrases to describe books/films, and to provide freer practice in lexical phrases for evaluating and recommending.

A)
• Instructions:
o Now, turn your paper over to look at question 3.
o You will complete these sentences from the audio with your groups.
o We will listen to the audio again when you finish to check your answers.
o First, can someone tell me what “based on” means? (Taken from/about – if I write a book about myself, that book is about my life/it is based on my life.)
o Complete these sentences with your group. You will have 3-4 minutes.
• Play audio.
• Instructions:
o Take 1 minute to check your answers with your group.
• Students share answers aloud.
B)
• Instructions:
o Look at 3b. Using the sentences that we just looked at, which of these expressions can be used to talk about a book and which can be used to talk about a TV show? We may be able to use some for both.
o Answer this question with your group. You will have 3 minutes.
o (TV show: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10)
o (Book: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10)

4. Task (10-12 minutes) • To give students practice in speaking for fluency in the context of describing, recommending and evaluating films or books.

• Instructions:
o Now, turn your paper over to look at question 4.
o Individually, choose any book or TV show you want.
o Use the examples in number 4 to think about how to describe that book or TV show. You will have 2 minutes.
o In your groups, please discuss your book or TV show with each other. You will have 5 minutes.
• Ask each group to share about the book or TV show they discussed.